Our Herb Spiral

Here is the finished herb spiral. I have placed a lavender on the top to attract bees and the spiral is planted with strawberries, parsley, coriander and sage. I am now planning on planting some thyme in the gaps of the actual wall as I have realised that would probably work and would expand the production space and provide more nectar for bees etc. I have spent about 14 hours making this at a total cost of $75 for the plants, compost and straw. I am really pleased with it and now just hope that it works! If you start from the bottom of the post you can see the steps that I took to end up here.

Then I added the straw and watered that in and then made pockets of compost and added the plants, watering it all in at the end. There were two lizards living in these pavers when they were a stack beside the fence so I am hoping that they will find their way to this, as well as other lizards.

 Then I added a layer of nasturtiums and comfrey leaves and under that is a layer of worm castings as I cleaned out the worm farm to use that too. Once again I watered the layer in the same way that each layer is watered in a no- dig garden.

 Some of the herb spiral demos I have watched on You Tube use all soil, and some use all straw, whilst others use a combination and layers. So I decided to add sand  first, then some wood, then cardboard and newspaper, watering between each layer.

 Because it is built on concrete I decided that I should have a layer of rubble in the bottom to assist drainage. I spent three hours smashing up broken pavers with a hammer to get a layer that I was happy with.

 Once I was getting down to the last few pavers I needed to make sure that there were going to be enough to make the centre higher and taper it down. It took a few readjustments but is almost finished here.

Once I had worked out my spiral, based on the size of the pavers and the shape that it needed to fit into, I started building it layer by layer. We have had a pile of pavers for a long time and as we do not want to put more pavers down this seemed like a good use of them. The concrete underneath is old and ugly so it will have to look better than that.

Attracting Beneficial Insects

Plants That Attract Beneficial Insects: A really useful,article here to assist in choosing plants that attract beneficial insects. We currently have the following:-

• Taraxacum officinale — Dandelion - attracts lacewings, ladybugs
• Coriandrum sativum — Coriander - attracts lacewings, ladybugs, hoverflies
• Foeniculum vulgare – Fennel - attracts lacewings, ladybugs, hoverflies, trichogramma wasps, pirate bugs, damsel bugs and big eyed bugs
•  Achillea millefolium — Common yarrow - attracts ladybugs, hoverflies, trichogramma wasps,
•  Chrysanthemum parthenium — Feverfew - attracts hoverflies,
• Lavandula angustifolia — English lavender - attracts hoverflies,
• Lobularia maritima — Sweet alyssum white - attracts hoverflies, trichogramma wasps
• Mentha pulegium — Pennyroyal - attracts -hoverflies, trichogramma wasps, tachnid flies

The importance of having bird baths is also mentioned, we have four in the front garden and none in the back garden so should probably get some for the back too. We do not spray any pesticides and have noticed many of these bugs, increasingly over the years, this is a reminder of where we are at now and what we can do to keep improving.

Today in our Garden

 We have now replanted, manured, weeded and mulched most of the main front garden. Here you can also see one of the three bird baths and the mulberry tree in the background.

 We have trimmed back the basil and thyme and pulled out the spent tomato plants and planted beetroot, capsicum, coriander, lettuce and chillies.

 We have left in some of the spinach and rainbow chard and here you can see cucumbers, one of the compost bins,  and the grape vine growing up the trunk.

 We have two compost bins and three bird baths in the front garden, here you can also see the tomato bush we have not cleared out yet, growing with a volunteer pumpkin vine, in front of the pomegranate tree.

 This is the lamb's ear ground cover plant which is growing below one of our fig trees.

 Here is the food hedge at the front, and the row of trees in the nature strip, an olive, fig and loquat.

 There is also an almond tree amongst the fejoas.

 Hers is the yarrow plant that we have growing under the loquat tree, it is supposed to assist any plant that it grows near to.

 We now have three types of fig tree, two in pots and this one in the ground.

And whilst we have not yet feverfew flowers for their medicinal properties they certainly look lovely in this vase with the lily.

Artichokes - Peacharines

The Globe Artichoke is looking fantastic at the moment, a neighbour has promised to teach us how to cook them, she suggested that we let them grow to big last time. I will check this week whether it is time to start harvesting them.

This shows the growth of the hedge and the no-dig garden, the warmer weather has led to a growth spurt, particularly the Almond tree and vegetable. The Spinach is till going to seed and we have now staked the Tomato plants.we have harvested lots of Kale, Spinach, Lettuce, Bok Choy and herbs this week and will continue to do so as they will not appreciate the warmer weather which is heading our way.

Below is a close up of the best flowering Pineapple Guava which form the hedge, hopefully we will actually get enough fruit to share this year.

We are also letting the Coriander flower and seed and hope to collect those seeds too. The Perennial Basil behind it continues to flower and attract lots of bees.

The Blackberry bush which is planted in one of the No-Dig fridge gardens is covered in flowers and newly formed Blackberries.

Next to it is the Peacharine Tree with the first two small fruits, we have mulched this with sugar cane mulch too and it seems much happier.

Doing our bit for Sustainable September

Our tiny Almond tree has about nine flowers on it, perhaps we will be able to double our crop of two almonds from last year!

Today we have harvested lots of Spinach and Kale, giving some away, cooking some and blanching and freezing the rest. Transplanted tiny Lettuce seedlings and planted some more seeds, including Capsicums.

We have realized that Andy had been planting some of the seeds too deep, not realizing that each plant likes to be planted at a certain depth, we live and learn.

 The Chinese Date/Jujube finally has some leaves sprouting, we have been told we will even get fruit from it this year- fingers crossed.

The Pomegranate and the Persimmon are now covered in leaves, they both have such elegant forms and leaf shapes they are lovely to look at.

The garden just outside the front door is doing well, here you can see Carrots, Coriander, Basil, Sage, Thyme and Capers. Once the Carrots are finished we plan to add more herbs that way they will be close to a door and easy to use for cooking.

Update on Garden-May 2009

Here are the latest pictures, showing Andy assembling our first no dig garden out the front. It will take us a while to fill it with leaves, straw and newspaper, so we decided we should at least get started. The photos beside the pool show the area of pavers that i pulled up a couple of months ago. There was always grass growing there so we thought we may as well have something we could eat there. So separated out lots of chives and also have some surprise plants growing as a result of using worm castings. Finally, two shots of the no dig garden in the back garden, not the latest shot, but you get the idea of how amazing teh growth has been. In this garden we have tomatoes, eggplants, parsley, coriander, leeks, lettuce and potatoes regrowing